I missed some trades!

Unlimited Card Count: 26

So just wanted to throw in a couple incoming trades that happened and I forgot to update the blog with them

Nothing special, but a nice little pickup for the set.

And a couple of iconic ABU cards.  Light Played condition, but still good additions to the collection.

Give me an update already!

Card Count: 238

First off!!!  You can pick up your preOrder at your LGS the weekend of Pre-Release!  I had no idea, hence the tardiness of this post.

Ok ok, that first row is my Masters 25 cards I have yet to make labels for and sort into the collection, but the other two rows on the right are everything I pulled from my Dominaria buy.

Let's do a recall.  I have made massive changes to my buying and I only picked up 4 booster boxes, and 2 bundles on pre-order.  My concern is cutting down on my bulk, and spending too much money on cards I do not need.  The issue was buying way more than I needed up front in order to get my full sets, but then I was left with a ton of bulk.

I was getting a large amount of trading fodder, and that was another reason why I was buying so many boxes.  I liked opening more than I needed to get card I could trade later on.  I could get my full playsets and then have a ton left over to trade for things I did not have.  The only thing wrong with that is no one needed my Standard cards in trade, and I would always go out and just pick up the good cards people wanted for trade.

I was basically just buying too many cards and not getting anything back in return, while buying more of the stuff I needed through more surgical purchases.

Enter the new plan!

So, when I first got back into buying MTG cards, I was only picking up 4 booster boxes, and then maybe some extra to hold on to for later.  I was able to get most of my Basic Lands, Commons, Uncommons, and Tokens.  It was manageable and still fun.  Then for some reason around RTR I decided to go fucking nuts and get a ton of stuff and go big.  My goal with the new plan is to get back to what I was doing and slow all this down.  Lets take a look and see how I did.

Dominaria as of 4/30
124 Cards needed
$624.48 Worth still needed

This does not include the 40 cards I need for my Planeswalker deck playsets.  They are still putting out 1 Land, 1 Common, 1 Uncommon, 1 Rare, and 1 Mythic Rare in each Planeswalker decks, and for some stupid reason I wanted to get a playset of those.  I have put these requirements up on my CardSphere, and I am already getting 26 of the 40 cards I need.  In past years I was able to get these cards pretty easy from a fella in the Netherlands.  I am hope he comes through again.

Math time!

So I opened up 4 Boosters and 1 Bundle this go around and ended up needing $624.48 worth of cards.  If I go back to Ixalan (Last Large set) and I see that I opened up 6 Booster boxes with 3 Bundles.  I ended up still needing $297.60 at the time.  That looks like a difference of $326.88, and if I push that difference to the missing product cost of $250 for the 2 Booster boxes and 2 Bundles I am about 1 Booster box short of what I spent, $76.88.

$624.48 - $297.60 = $326.88
This is the difference of what I needed in Dominaria compared to Ixalan.  I opened 2 Booster boxes and 2 Bundles less of Dominaria and need $326.88 more cards.

Theory of it, if I would have spent $250.00 more on that sealed product I could have slimmed that $326.88 down more.  So in theory I am down cards because I did not open more sealed product.  Also I am losing out on all those foil cards, and the extra trading fodder I would normally get.  This go around I got 1 card for trading: Two-Headed Giant.  So really my theory is wrong and I am losing out on cards.

Why my theory is still right.

Since the release of Ixalan I have spent $284.81 on cards I need to complete my playset and also for extra cards I really liked like Search for Azcanta.  I have also picked up 9 Booster boxes of sealed product outside of my PreOrder.  That is going to be close to $792.00 just in sealed product.

With all that in mind, I have traded away close to 10 cards.  That is out of the extra $250.00 worth of sealed product I have not traded much away at all, and I have spent more to get things that I like in addition to buying more sealed product just because I like the set so much.

So what did I save?  I saved myself from the bulk.  The time lost sorting all that bulk.  The storage space keeping all that bulk.  The time I gained from trying to get rid of those cards.

With just opening just a small amount I free up my cash to buy just the cards I need to complete my playsets.  I free up the time to do other things like write blogs.  I also free up my savings to pick up more of a set that is worth buying, and not just shotgunning every set.

Think about it, if I did not spend the extra $250 on Rivals of Ixalan, Hour of Devastation, and Amonkhet I would have an extra $750 sitting in my bank account gaining interest waiting for rotation, and freeing up that cash for sets like Dominaria to buy more of.  And considering the recent sets being released, the better sets are harder to come by than ever.

What about all the foils!?

Ok, so I am losing out on some foils, but it is not that much.

Shadows Over Innistrad: $77.22 @ 75 cards
Eldritch Moon: $107.67 @ 66 cards
Kaladesh: $172.17 @ 101 cards
Aether Revolt: $206.70 @ 93 cards
Amonkhet: $76.56 @ 63 cards
Hour of Devastation: $99.12 @ 70 cards
Ixalan: $202.05 @ 80 cards
Rivals of Ixalan: $102.63 @ 61 cards
Dominaria: $129.06 @ 37 cards

So on average I am losing 35 foil cards, but the price is about average.  With this, I do not think I am losing out on anything with the foils.  I also really think I need to trade away all my foils, because who really cares about chasing foil cards...

Now I could just be talking myself into this new theory, and I am only saying this because I have always been so justified with how I was buying, and now that I am on this "Less is better" kick my opinion would only result in this method.  But really, it was eye opening to see how much I could sell my collection, and anything extra does not mean crap.  They only want to pay you what they are going to pay you, and everything else is free.

Why do I need a kick ass trade binder if I have every card?  Seriously.  I know it is a status symbol for me, but really who cares if I have a ton of good cards in my binder.  I should be shipping those cards out to buy lists in order to get some sealed product I need, or sending them out on CardSphere.

So that is the deal.  The new plan is in place and I am going to be more surgical with my purchases without just waiting for the set rotation and buying the full sets then.

I did however head up to an LGS near my house to pick up some Pre-Release kits.  The store is popular with the kids, but they do not get a lot of players so they have a lot of kits left over for sale.

$25 a piece so I could not pass that up.

I also had to pick up these two to finish up my playset.  I have a feeling this one will go up for the ProTour.  I can just see a lot going on here, and I can see some desire in Modern for this card.  Might be too expensive, but I have seen cards of this casting cost get pulled into Modern before.

And yes, I splurged but I really just want my playset of these and move on.  I do not think they have a ton of value, but this is the type of card I have missed before and paid a lot more, so just wanted to get it over with.

Dominaria and the new budgeting process!

4 Boosters
2 Bundles
2 Planeswalker Deck

That is all I am going to be picking up on pre-order.  I am more than likely just going to be opening the 4 Booster boxes, and 1 Bundle.  That is it.

Now!

I do plan on picking up more sealed boxes in a year or two because it is a Standard set and WotC will continue to print the hell out of it.  And yes, it is a buy that I will be preforming because I really think this set will be worth more in the later years.

Eldritch Moon
Kaladesh
Aether Revolt
Ixalan

These are all the sets I consider really great sets.  I have picked up more of these sealed boxes along the way because I think these sets will show a lot more value after the printing is done.  Eldritch Moon just had a ton of Modern staples.  Then Kaladesh and Aether Revolt was all about the Energy.  Ixalan I consider Urza's Saga 2.0 with those flip lands.

With Dominaria I see some of the same types of value.  The Saga's, Legendary cards, the new Mox, and just value I see in the set.  I personally see a lot of really good Modern and EDH cards.  I could really care less about Standard since it is just a 2 year return, but for Modern and EDH I see some really good cards for the long haul.  And in all the slots too - Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic Rare have all some really good cards.  I am not going to go through all the cards I think have value, just because I am not a set review Blog, but I did want to put it out there that I do see a lot of value in this specific set.

You could sit back and ask "what do you consider a bad set, and how do you get to that point?"

Amonkhet in my eyes was a bad set along with Hour of Devastation.  After rotation I do not see many of the cards doing anything.  Maybe after the 5 year timeline the cards will go up based on availability, but for the most part I do not see a lot of value from the set.

Another example is Shadows Over Innistrad.  While I really like Eldritch Moon, I felt that SOI did not have much value in the set.  There was not a lot that was popping out for playable cards.  Some set might get released later that will cause a card in the set to spike, but for the most part I just could not find much in the set.

How do you expect to buy new sets"

For the most part, I have found that there is no real big need to pick up sealed product on pre-order.  Now with the ability to pickup cases at $79.99 per box from Rudy and Alpha Investments, that $90 price point from LGS's is not such a big deal and I can take my time in buying more product on release.  I can only assume that my LGS will like it better that I buy singles from them instead of sealed product since they get to do such a mark up on singles they buy from other players, and the margin from selling sealed product it not worth it.

It is like this, I can pick up what I want to open on Pre-order and I will be set with the collection needs.  Then I can buy all the singles I need from the LGS to fill out my playsets.  The stores are going to like that more because of the margin they make on singles, and I would assume they would prefer me to pick up singles from them rather than buying a sealed booster box and only make like $20.00 per box.

Then I can just keep picking up boxes from Rudy at those price points, and keep those sealed boxes around if I want and not opening up so much sealed product.  Not only is it becoming difficult storing all those cards, but it is also not owning so many cards!  With buy listing and CardSphere I am trying to make my collection of bulk smaller, and opening up so much sealed product is just becoming to painful.

I can also put some budget toward picking up collections.  With less bulk on booster boxes I am opening, I can really pick up some bulk for cheap when buying collections.  I highly doubt I will do more collection buying, but it is an option.

I do have to say that with Rudy and CardSphere, it is a lot easier to get what I need and to be more surgical with my purchases.  I can only dream of the day where I am all caught up with my sealed product in the collection, and I can really concentrate on picking up things that will increase the collection value.

So really with Dominaria I am planning on going into "spend as little as I can" mode.  I used to just pick up 4 booster boxes when I got back into MTG, and that always was a good number for bulk and getting Common / Uncommon playsets.  Picking up sealed booster boxes as the year goes on, just to get sets I see more value in.  I do plan on picking up a lot more of Dominaria, just not so much at release.

I have noticed that with the releases of these latest sets, it has been touch and go with value.  I cannot just shotgun the set and pick up more than I need.  I have to be more careful with my buys so I can save more money for the sets that are worth keeping around.  My hope is that picking up my playsets will not cost too much and I can do it in this cost effective manner.

I just think that this is going to be a very good set in the long run, and I am planning on investing in this set a bit.

Help me get my CS badges for referrals!
https://www.cardsphere.com/ref/711/e4031f


More to come!  Happy Wed!

Buy Listing and CardSphere

Beta Card Count: 20!!!

So this week on the MTG trading blog I got in some pretty good pickups.  CardSphere keeps bringing in the gold as more and more people join the site.  My plan to keep sending out as much as I can to keep my balance up is paying off, and I am actually getting in cards that I need.

Let's take a look.

First one to show, Beta Rod of Ruin.  This trader was someone who decided to send and ship very fast, so fast I could not get pictures of the card before the send.  Not that big of a deal considering it is only a Rod of Ruin, but consider always sending pictures when you send an ABU card.  Just so the person on the other end can approve of the condition.  I was happy when I opened it, so not complaining.

This one I was worried about.  The condition showed very very nice in the picture I was scared it was a fake.  When it got here, it proved out to be real and a great addition to the collection!

I am really enjoying my time on CardSphere, being able to build up that balance of mine for cards like this.  They are not Mint cards, but they are cards I am satisfied with.  I do want the best possible condition of the cards, but I am also a player and want a collection I can play with not just look at.  And the more and more people joining the site just means more of an audience I can trade with.

Come on an join me: https://www.cardsphere.com/ref/711/e4031f

Next up, my toe dip into Buy Listing has been fruitful in my eyes.  I have only been using Card Kingdom and I am really only sending Commons and Uncommons, but I am building up a nice balance there as well.  I was able to get up to around $600 worth and put in my first order.

This box finishes my Onslaught Block.  I am just thankful that I can trade in my bulk for stuff like this.  Knowing this, I can still hold off on more sought after cards and send those through CardSphere getting closer to 80% of their value, while I am only getting around 50% through Buy Listing to trade-in value.

I know, most of you are thinking "Why would I get those boxes?"  These are boxes with very low value, and are not even Modern Legal, but if you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I have a taste for the older sets, and I find more value in those sets.  Considering that these booster boxes are more rare, I thought it would be best for me to pick these up first.  I will be able to snag up the Modern boxes a lot easier, but really feel these older boxes are worth the priority.  They won't go up in value for the cards in the set, but they will go up based off of scarcity and that is good enough reason to pick them up first.

So yeah, this weekend I am packing up about 13 new sends for CardSphere, then I will take a peek to see if there is anything I can send to Card Kingdom.  I also requested that some of the Booster boxes get pricing on CardSphere, there was a trader that let me know they had a box of Stronghold they were willing to send me!  So I hope that gets updated soon so I can finish that block!

Have a good week!

S l o w D o w n . . .

Walk away, just walk away!

So yeah, there are thoughts of just walking away from the blog and spending more time on other things.  There are thoughts of just cashing out on the collection and paying down my home.  There are thoughts just giving up and putting it all in cold storage until my son gets older.

As of right now I am just chipping off more and more of what I was doing until I can get back to a balanced hobby.  I did put out feelers to see if anyone would be willing to buy my collection and if you can guess I got very low offers for a collection like mine.  The only real offer I did get was from Alpha Investments.

ABU Games did not take me seriously.  Card Kingdom was pretty awesome to talk to, but the whole not being in Seattle really hurt my chances.  And a local player Dreamers could not fund an offer that I could take seriously, to the point where they did not even reply once I sent my spreadsheets.  And that is another thing, NO ONE asked if I had an inventory.  It was like they did not even want to take the time when I gave them a summary.  It was just stupid.

And no, I did not go to Channel Fireball or Star City Games because I feel that ABU and Card Kingdom are higher quality LGS's and would take me more seriously.  And really, Card Kingdom is the only large retailer I think I would deal with in the future.

So yeah, selling to a big buyer is out of the picture and I am heading back down the path of just finishing the collection of all my phases and then if my son does not like the game I will try and sell it all on eBay in one big deal.

One really cool thing that I found is that Card Kingdom buylist.  I have been sending them bulk for the last couple of weeks, and I am doing my first cash in for some sealed product.  Picking up a sealed booster box of Scourge to finish that block, and then a Judgment box.  I know, I should pick up more expensive boxes while I can, but with the reprint cycles that Masters sets are providing, I am just going to wait for them to reprint the good cards in those sets to grab them at that time.  I could be wrong, but really I just want to get as much of the older stuff as I can.  Just like I did with getting Legacy cards before Modern.

So that still leaves me with a huge issue with how much time I was putting in towards collecting.  I have removed my Deckbox Inventory, and that had cut down on the time of maintaining that site.  I have also cut back on sending on CardSphere to only 10 or less packages a week.  This frees up my weekend and I can manage that part of collecting much better.  I have also not been getting as much as I was, but the site is picking up on users more everyday.

I do think that CardSphere is going to be my main venue to trading cards, since I just can't give up on that sweet deals people keep sending me.

<Cough>

Got this little beauty today.  Fucking CardSphere is just value town...

And since I am not giving up on the collection, I still want to maintain the blog as a history of my collection for the time I do sell it.  That way there is more proof that it is all real.  So the thoughts of just giving up on the blog is out the window.

I mean look, how else are you going to see really cool pictures of the new product like these?

Bam!

Whoooopa!

So, not selling, keep blogging, and keep trading.  Nothing is changing!!!

In reality it still is changing.  I will be updating the blog less since my trading has been cut down.  And with just focus on CardSphere I will not be getting in as many cards as I will be sending out.  I am also only bulk sending to Card Kingdom once a month or so, so new pick ups from there will be slow going.  Really I am just getting back to the day when I could just play and collect.  I am not worried about staying on top of all the pricing, or doing massive sends.

I am just going to concentrate on getting rid of all my extra bulk, finishing the collection, and get playing again.  Taking more time to spend with the family, and less time staring at the screen.

I am still going to be buying the new product, but I am cutting it down a lot.  I am only getting 4 boxes and 2 bundles to open per set.  We are officially going into the least cost model that I had spoken about before.  Let's see how I do on this...

This will cut down on the sorting and inventorying by a ton, and I will be cutting down my inventory in general with the thought of getting rid of cards and not adding more to my bulk.  I will also be spending more time dumpster diving to finishing my collection instead of spending a ton on sealed product to open.  This will also get me out of the house and away from the glow of my computer screens.

One thing that I figured out is that it does not matter how much of a complete collection I do have.  Selling to an LGS will never even pull 40% of the value of the thing.  If I am not successful with selling the whole thing on eBay, I will need to sell it slowly over time on CardSphere.

In the end, it is just better that I keep everything and wait another 20 years to see where we are at.

So yeah, expect the updates to the blog to be slow going, but I am still here and will update when I can.  Let's just focus on the hobby and not all the other crap that makes it not fun to do.  Get back to slinging spells and good laughs.  No more min / max.

/hugs!

Just keep swimming

Beta Card Count: 22
Unlimited Card Count: 29

So I know based on some of the more recent posts it looks like I might sell the collection, but there were some items from CardSphere that still needed to come in, so I just wanted to post a new update to show my new adds.

Here we go!

This was a very nice add.  Came from another trader that had some older cards, and felt it was nice to send to me because I was a collector.  It was much appreciated.

These two were just beautiful.  From the same sender, and just in great condition.  They had some play wear, but I consider them in great condition.  You can really appreciate the vibrant color from the Unlimited set cards.

Now, here are some long time wants that came in.  I have been looking for these versions of Arabian Nights cards for a while now.  With Arabian Nights, they had some cards with 2 different printings of the cards.  The colorless mana symbol had two different shades, and are considered part of a full set.  For a long time now, I have been in search of these different printings, and these were 3 new ones that came in!

You can see what I mean here, as the one on the right is the one I had.  The one on the left is the new one, with the lighter shade.  There are 6 more cards from that set that I am looking for with the lighter shade, and I find it interesting that the prices of those cards have more then quadrupled since my first search for them.

This here is one reason I hope I can pull myself out of this spiral down the OCD hole.  I am really starting to get some good items from CardSphere and this is one of them.  I am trading what I am sending away to get sealed product like this at the price I am listing it at.  Just fucking value.

People are going out and picking up items that I am looking for sealed so they can increase their CS balances for the economy.  Just fucking value.

They are seeing what I am looking for and fulfilling my orders.  I am using the site as a brokerage account.  I deposit my cards, sell them to get cash, and use that cash to get products I really want.  Just fucking value.

Never would I have thought I could get Sealed Fat Packs of sets of this age from a site that deals in Peer to Peer trading.  Just fucking value.

I keep looking at the Send list in CardSphere and I get small panic attacks.  Just from the thoughts of how much money I am losing by sitting on the sidelines and not shipping out.  I also cut down on my Wants list, so that no one sends me anything that would hit me too hard.  It is just the fact of having to sit in front of my computer, pulling the cards, getting the cards ready to ship, adjusting my inventory, shipping the cards, and everything that has to deal with getting things done, just not sure I can handle it right now.

I am hoping that I can get back into things, but there is a big chance I just step back and only pick up sealed product for the collection for a while.  I just really see CardSphere and buylisting as a huge venue to get to where I want to get, and all this sitting on the sideline is taking a big chunk out of that goal.  It just seems like my list is getting longer and longer while I sit on the sidelines.

There is no new updates to selling the collection, but we will see.  I still do not think I will sell to anyone.

Collection Sale Update

Now with the sale of my collection, I am still knee deep in thought.  I have reached out to multiple stores to see what they could offer, and most of them have come back with the standard reaction.  Price is a big thing, and they all seem to be low balling me in general.  When I say low balling me it is under the $100k offers.

In general they are really interested in my collection, and always ask up front what I am looking for.  I will normally respond with 60% of the value they see it being worth, or a straight up number I am looking at.  My goal is to just be upfront with what I am expecting, and I think that is doing us both a service because it sets the conversation up to be quick and to the point.

They are either just straight up with me and say that I am asking for too much and that ends the conversation.  Or they are more willing to keep talking to me about what could be done.  The conversations with the folks that bring up things that could be done are a lot more constructive, and give me a ton more options.

Based off of one exchange, I just started to buylist some of my bulk to them.  I figure if I can send a couple thousand cards for around $17 and get over $300 in trade-in value, it is worth it to me.  That way I could try and finish up my collection while I wait to see what I am going to do, at the same time slimming down the collection to just the collection pieces, and I can get rid of all the other bulk.

Of course the request has gone out to Rudy from Alpha Investments, and I am waiting to see what he says.  But in dealing with him, I almost want to start to upload everything just for my collection to Deckbox with pictures.  That way, if someone wants to see what I have, it will all be up there and I can point them to that.  It would also help if I try and sell on eBay, a point of reference so folks can check out what they are bidding for.  I highly doubt I will put it up on eBay for auction, but it will be something I will look into as an option.

But yes, I keep getting the same responses that my price tag is too expensive, or they need all the cards at their location to give me a good price.  All of them worried about putting in the time to give me a quote only for me to turn around and say I don't want to sell.  I get it, but none of them ask for an inventory of my cards.  They just tell me I am asking for too much.  That is the part I do not get.

Almost like they just don't want to put that much capital into buying something like this because it will take to long for them to get a return, and they are just saying I am asking for too much.

I did reach out to a growing LGS that is local to MN, and they started out with the same responses, and required me to drop off the collection at their store to go through.  My response was that I did not think it was worth it for me to drive over a van full of MTG cards without knowing they are willing to buy it at a price I was comfortable with.  I even offered to show them the collection at my house first to see if they were interested in buying what they saw for around my price, and then we could move the cards over to their shop for pricing.

They came back with a response that said "they were not interested in buying the collection at the price I was asking, but if I ever wanted to sell to them at their pricing I can always reach back out to them."  I replied with an "I get it" e-mail, and explaining to them that if I do not get my asking price from the big national retailers with my 50% value, I would be taking the long game and selling everything through buylisting and CardSphere with closer to 80% returns, and thanked them for the responses.  I also added that I maintain a spreadsheet and compiled the dollar amount I was asking for from that spreadsheet, and it was not just a number I pulled out of thin air.  I mean, I really needed to try and ask a local store if they were interested or not, but I was not expecting that they could afford an offer on my collection.

This was another point that I gathered from a conversation with Card Kingdom.  From the fact that if I lived in Seattle, it would have been a lot easier to get something done.  The issue was that I was in Minnesota and I would have to get the cards to them to cost it out, so they could find their value for it.  That is the main reason I needed to try locally.

This morning I did find a new e-mail in the old inbox.  After the quick dismissal, looks like the buyer had a conversation with the owners, and they might be interested in my collection after all and requested my spreadsheets.  Let's just say that they do not think I know what I am doing, and I am just another person who collects MTG cards, and thinks their collection is worth more than it really is.

I am not saying it is going to be a deal or not, and I am pretty sure they are still going to try and haggle me down, but at least I know that I can get rid of everything with buylisting and CardSphere, it will just take a lot longer.

But yeah, looks like I am still searching out a buyer, but the good thing is I have all the time in the world.  I am taking a much needed break from collecting right now and just trying to finish up on a couple things that are lingering around.  I still have some hope with Rudy, and I think he will give me the best price from a single buyer, but I do not think he would be able to do it for a year or so.  It is a lot of cash to have sitting around to buy a collection like this.

And of course I am still sitting on the fence.  There is my wife's want for me to keep the collection around from the fact that it has been apart of my life for 24 years.  Then there is the fear that I will just get lost in my OCD and allow it to take over my life.  But the fact that I can write about it in this manner, with the clear thoughts of being able to even think about selling, gives me some clarity that it is not as bad as I thought it was.

I always have the backup plan to part everything out and sell it over time myself.  But I also have the ability to keep the collection around and try and finish it, but without doing the MTG Finance aspect of collecting,  and just be a collector.  I just need to spend less time in front of my computer, and more balanced time with my life.

I am still moving forward to see if there is anyone that would buy the collection, but unless my price is met, I do not think I will be making a move on selling just to sell.  For now, I am just staying away from my collection, and will start back up if I do not sell at a more scheduled rate to control my exposure to that Obsessive part of my mind.